GIBSON, John, English sculptor: b. near Conway, Wales, 19 July 1790; d. Rome, 27 Jan. 1866. He was the son of a landscape gardener.
and was apprenticed to a wood-carver at Liver pool, where he attracted attention by a figure of (Time,) modeled in. wax, which he exhibited at the age of 18. The patronage of W. Roscoe (q.v.) assisted him to go to Rome, where he was cordially received by Canova. On the death of Canova in 1822 Gibson entered the studio of Thorwaldsen. In 1838 he was made a royal academician; but to the end of his life continued to make Rome his chief place of resi dence. Among his best works are (The Wounded Amazon' ;
was the author of one remarkable innovation, at least in modern sculpture, that of coloring his figures, and though he believed to the last that the experiments of this nature which he made were successful, he never succeeded in securing the approbation of other artists for the practice. He was a man of great kindliness of disposition, but so absent-minded that his friend and only pupil, Harriet Hosmer, the American sculptor, said of him:
is a
in the studio, but God help him out of it?' s 'Life,' with an autobiography, was edited by Lady Eastlake (1870).